Why Car Seats Can Damage Your Fur Coat

Throughout the years, my father and I have seen many types of fur coats that needed repairs. From water damage, cigarette burns, to the famous “a chipmunk ate my sleeve” type of damages. However, no other type of fur coat damage is more common than ones done by the car seat.

Although furs a durable, fur coats don’t handle well with friction or crushing, both of which happens in your car. The fibers of your fur coat get stuck in the material of your car seat and as a result, wear out the fur. It becomes very noticeable on back side of the coat, basically where you sit (on your bum). Because of the location of the damage, there’s very little you can do to repair it. That’s because you would have to replace the entire back side, from neck down. The cost to replace that much material does not make feasible for most people. They would rather buy a new instead.

Granted, leather seats is much better than material type of car seats, but if you intend to sit on your fur coat, the flattening and friction will eventually damage it. But there are things you can do: (these are recommended by the fur council as well)

a) Avoid sitting on your fur coat when driving for long distances. In such cases, it is recommended that you take off your fur and wear it over you like a blanket.

b) If your car seat is made out of suede, get a car seat cover made out of nylon or leather. This is probably the best advice to protect your fur coat since suede care seats are the worst offenders. The Instead of getting stuck on the car seat, the fur slides over the nylon or leather cover.

As I mentioned earlier, if your coat has been damaged by your car seat, there’s very little you can do in terms of fur repairs. In addition the cost, it’s almost impossible to replace the fur with another one that has the same color or tailoring style.

Are all furs this liable to car seats? The sad thing is yes, they will all get damaged but some are worse than others. Long hair furs such as foxes and coyotes are the easiest to succumb to the car seat. We have seen fox fur coat wear out within a year of purchase, that’s how fast can be damaged. Whereas mink fur coats and muskrat will take 4-5 years before you can see any damage.

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